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Assert your right to choose!

On a hospital appointment with a friend who is 40weeks +6 (first pregnancy, young mother to be) the lovely student midwife is talking to us about booking an induction date and about hospital policy (booking an induction for 41weeks +3) etc... We tell her my friend wishes to give her body the opportunity to go into natural labour as long as possible, at least til 42weeks which is still considered full term. She hesitates and is like "oh but hospital policy..." and makes a call to birth unit, we whisper to her to push for as long as possible...ends up booking an induction for 41 + 3, anyway she gets off the phone and we politely insist that is not good enough and we want to speak with a senior midwife. With fear in her eyes she reluctantly goes off to find a senior midwife.
Senior midwife comes in and sits across from us with almost a halo of pride surrounding her and that her she knew best! Anyway my friend is quite anxious by this stage and at a loss for words. The senior midwife talks to us about the "hospital policy" and about the risks of going post term...I quickly (& politely) interrupt that 42weeks is considered full term and that my friend wants the opportunity to try until then to go into labour naturally and that couldn't we perhaps try a few less drastic measure before the induction such as book her in for a "stretch & sweep" and that inductions weren't risk-free. Her tone changes and both the midwives leave the room to speak with one of the doctors...they came back and lo and behold! From booking the induction for Saturday they changed it to Wednesday!
Birth unit gave the student midwife a hard time when she changed the appointment and the senior midwife actually had to jump in and speak to them because they were being so rude and uncooperative. We thanked the midwives for their help & support of my friend’s choices.
I'm so sad that a student midwife is made to feel scared to stand up for a women's choice

Thank you for sharing this story. It's such a shame. The NICE (National Institute of Clinical Excellence) guidelines state that induction should be offered as a choice to women not a hospital policy. Women should be given the option of waiting to go into labour spontaneously. As you say, an induction carries risks and can often lead to a high intervention birth (for example, women that have inductions are more likely to request an epidural and, therefore, more likely to have forceps used or to tear). I certainly agree women should 'assert their right to choose' and that midwives should be able to support women to do so. This was one reason I hired a doula - to help support me in my choices.

Good for your friend and for you on being so well-educated! This bullying makes me so sad. Induction for post term should not even be considered before 42 weeks. You are a great friend to offer support and advice. I will be hoping your friend goes into labour naturally very soon.

Every woman should have an advocate like you! Thank you so much for supporting your friend and being her advocate in the hospital.

Interesting information that LJ shared that the NICE guidelines state that women should be given the option of waiting to go into labour spontaneously. I have a friend who was scheduled for an induction at 40 weeks +2 and she was quite anxious to go into labour before then. She used blue cohosh and black cohosh according to her midwife's direction and made love often in hopes that the semen would help her start to dilate.

She was able to give birth before the induction date, but I was so sad that she felt so anxious about going into labour before 40+2. This was a young lady who's mum had had 3 homebirths, and she wanted a homebirth but couldn't afford it. She ended up with a good hospital birth, and even went into labour early with baby #2, and had another hospital birth. She has been fortunate to have two good hospital births.

How is your friend doing right now? Hope she's going as much as she can to help her body prepare for childbirth.

Praying that she will go into labour tonight! if not induction is booked for tomorrow but she has a great birth plan that covers induction/augmentation and all the other stuff (written by a lovely doula).

She is happy with her decision to wait til now but feels that she wants the induction if she doesnt go into labour tonight.

OK we went into hospital today...my friend didn't want to go ahead with the Syntocinon drip because apparently hospital policy is they must break your waters first before turning on the drip...if anyone has info on this please respond!

She had a another dose of gel. We had a "nice" lecture by the doctor that was so uncaring and only magnified the risk involved in going over but no mention of any risks of induction or cesarean only that there is no "increased" risk with a induction or cesarean at 42weeks...

It makes sense that they would want to break her waters first to see if they could start labour naturally before starting a drip. I'm not saying it's best - I'm just saying that it makes sense.

Another dose of gel. Have contractions started today? Has your friend considered trying to bring labour on with herbs? Is she making love every day? When the body is ready to go into labour, making love (semen on the cervix) can be very effective - I suppose it's similar to what the gel would do, though.